Trying Again to Transform Weakest Schools

Firm Leads Overhaul at 7 Senior Highs

Teachers receive training as part of a school restructuring. From left, Lizzie Jones, Sonja Jones, Natalie McCuiston, Barbara Mayers and Gloria Fergusson. (Photos By James A. Parcell -- The Washington Post)

More than 10 years ago, D.C. school officials introduced a term to refer to a new process for overhauling the most academically troubled schools: "reconstitution."

A few years later, under a new administration, the process -- which involved bringing in education experts and sometimes replacing the curricula and staff -- became known as "transformation."

This year, in yet another incarnation, the school system's attempt to fix low-achieving schools will be called "restructuring."

Whatever it is called, there is widespread demand for results, not just rhetoric. At least 80 of the system's 140 schools have failed to make "adequate yearly progress" under the No Child Left Behind law, subjecting them to heightened scrutiny. The law requires extra intervention for schools that fail to make academic targets for four or more years.

This year, seven senior highs -- Ballou and Anacostia in Southeast; Eastern and Woodson in Northeast; and Roosevelt, Coolidge and M.M. Washington in Northwest -- will receive the highest level of intervention.

An educational company will manage their academic overhaul. There will be extended classroom time in reading, writing and math; training for teachers and principals; and more individual attention for struggling students.

"The first thing students will notice is the 90-minute math and reading periods," said Marc S. Tucker, vice chairman of America's Choice, the Washington-based firm hired to oversee the reform effort as well as provide instructional materials and training to teachers at the restructured schools.

"We want to give [students] material that is challenging but not daunting," he added. Officials from America's Choice said they are charging the school system $1.5 million. Thirteen other schools that feed into the senior highs will receive less intensive intervention. They will get the math and reading programs from America's Choice but not the teacher-training programs.

The restructuring plan itself has seen some restructuring and has not always been implemented smoothly or on time.

For instance, teachers and students at Eastern were told as late as in May that they would be moving in the fall to accommodate the conversion of their building on Capitol Hill into a Latin academy modeled on the famed Boston Latin School, the alma mater of Superintendent Clifford B. Janey. But in June, those plans were put on hold with little explanation, said Mark Roy, a community member of Eastern's school restructuring team that advises the principal.

Parents and students, Roy said, were disappointed that the remodeling was delayed. He speculated that Janey was forced to hold off when his chief accountability officer, Meria J. Carstarphen, who oversaw the plan, left in June to become school superintendent in St. Paul, Minn.

"It's frustrating," Roy said. "Since the one person left, everything seems to be falling apart."